Siemens
Solves Power over Ethernet Challenge for 802.11n
Deployments
As more enterprises embrace mobility, they are faced
with an increasing need for cost-effective,
higher-performance wireless LANs (WLANs). While 802.11n
delivers the higher speed and improved range they want,
the cost and complexity of enabling an existing network
to handle 802.11n has held many enterprises back. The
new HiPath® Wireless 802.11n solution from Siemens
Enterprise Communications is the first 802.11n solution
to offer innovative architecture and power consumption
capabilities to make the migration to fully functional,
faster, more reliable 802.11n networks easier and more
cost-effective. This secure wireless solution is a key
part of Siemens’ open communications portfolio.
802.11n offers substantial benefits over previous
wireless standards, with speeds up to five times faster
than traditional WLANs, greater range and improved
reliability to support high-performance mobile
applications, such as HD video, high-resolution imaging
and voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN). However, with
these benefits has come the considerable challenge of
integrating the access points into an existing network,
since additional power is required for dual-band 3x3
radios (those functioning in both the 2.4 and 5GHz
bands) to work at optimum performance levels.
HiPath Wireless is the first solution to provide full
dual-band 3x3 MIMO and 802.11n functionality that
complies with the 802.3af Power-over Ethernet (PoE)
standard, so enterprises can enjoy the highest
performance without additional costs. Most enterprise
WLANs rely on 802.3af switches, but the six radios used
by 802.11n access points tend to draw more power than
these switches can provide over a single connection.
Some existing 802.11n solutions use a reduced number of
radios or frequency bands, or force customers to
simultaneously upgrade to higher-wattage, proprietary
non-standard PoE switching infrastructure, resulting in
significantly reduced performance and more complex and
costly deployments.
“Enterprises are excited about 802.11n and the potential
for new, high-performance wireless applications. But so
far they have been hesitant to embrace the new
technology out of concern that it will require
significant changes to their existing network,” said
Paul DeBeasi, senior analyst for Burton Group. “Siemens’
dual-band, 3x3 MIMO Access Points enable enterprises to
deploy an 802.11n network using their existing
802.3af-compliant infrastructure.”
Siemens 802.11n solution enables enterprises to realize
the full benefits of 802.11n, without costly upgrades to
the backbone network and wireless controller
infrastructure, thanks to its unique VNS (Virtual
Network Services) architecture. The VNS architecture
provides performance optimisation for high-bandwidth
applications by intelligently routing network traffic
between the edge of the network and the core, depending
on the application and available network capacities, to
maximise the bandwidth that can be achieved on the
network. This architecture was designed to achieve
optimal high-bandwidth performance without requiring
upgrades to the existing wired network controllers,
making it easier and more cost-effective to deploy and
integrate the solution across the enterprise.
Competitive solutions that require all traffic to be
forwarded to the central WLAN controller lead to the
potential for significant bottlenecks due to the
substantially higher bandwidth of 802.11n. Many vendors
require costly upgrades to the wired backbone and new
wireless controllers to fully implement 802.11n.
Siemens’ 802.11n solution includes two new 802.11n
HiPath Wireless Access Points, AP3610 (internal antenna)
and AP3620 (external antenna), a new version of HiPath
Wireless Convergence Software (V5 R1) that enables
controllers to recognise and manage 802.11n access
points, and a new version of HiPath Wireless Manager
HiGuard that delivers advanced management and WIPS
security for 802.11n-enabled networks, another key
advancement from Siemens.
“In support of the mobile enterprise, Siemens now has a
HiPath Wireless offering for new and existing customers
looking to benefit from the considerable speed and
reliability benefits provided by 802.11n technology,”
said Luc Roy, vice president of Enterprise Mobility for
Siemens. “The unique architecture and capabilities that
we have designed into HiPath Wireless can give any
enterprise the confidence that they can easily and
cost-effectively deploy a high-performance wireless
network, while taking care of ever increasing mobile
business.”
Siemens’ HiPath Wireless solution will begin shipping in
March 2008.
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